The
following is derived fromGeorge Reeser
Prowell'sHistory of Camden
County, New Jerseypublished in 1886

THE
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHBy
Rev. William Boyd

THE
SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH was organized on the lat of March, 1860,
and, to use the language of its first pastor, it " was launched
into being under the fostering care of the First Presbyterian Church,
being born, not as new churches sometimes are, out of disaffection or
controversy, but out of love for the Master and for the extension of His
kingdom."

The
Central Church, situated at the corner of Fourth Street and Hartman,
after a short and precarious existence, had quietly succumbed to the
force of circumstances and had been dissolved by the New School
Presbytery of Philadelphia. For several years after its dissolution no
attempt had been made to reoccupy the field in which it had stood. In
1859, however, Rev. Dr. Daniel Stewart, pastor of the First Church,
urged upon his people the importance of forming another Presbyterian
Church. A meeting for this purpose was called for March 23, 1859, at
which a committee, composed of Isaac Van Horn, Thomas McKeen, James H.
Stevens, George W. Carpenter, Sr., and Gilbert Bulson, were appointed
"to seek out and secure one or more sites of church edifices in
suitable location, and in the event of finding such loca­tion, to erect
a temporary edifice for the purpose of worship and Sabbath-school
instruction." This committee, through the influence of Mr. Van
Horn, purchased from Edward. A. Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., four lots of
ground situated at the corner of Fourth Street and Washington, Mr.
Stevens donating eight hundred dollars of the purchase money. These lots
were afterwards exchanged for the lots upon the upper side of the same
square, at Fourth Street and Benson, the site of the present church,
where a chapel was built, at a cost of nineteen hundred dollars, the
money having been contrib­uted mainly by members of the First Church,
who, at their next congregational meeting, upon recommendation of the
committee, deeded the whole property to the "Trustees of the Second
Presbyterian Church.".

The
Presbytery of Burlington met in the chapel March 1, 1860, and organized
the church with a membership of twenty persons, viz.: Robert Barber,
Thomas F. Lambson, Isaac Van Horn, James Good, Thomas McKeen, Emily
Barber, Sarah J. McKeen, Mary A. Turtelot, Mary A. Van Horn, Elizabeth
Van Horn, Anne E. Clark, Nancy A. Hoxie, Margaretta Lambson, Jane
Marshall, Henrietta Smith, Selina O. Turtelot and Ann E. Van Horn. Upon
the same day Mr. Lewis C. Baker was called, ordained and installed as
pastor of the church. Isaac Van Horn and Robert Barber were set apart to
the office of the eldership, and Isaac Van Horn, Thomas McKeen, Cyrus
Kellog, James Good, Thomas F. Lambson, James C. Wright and J. L.
Prentiss were constituted the first board of trustees.

The
wisdom of the new enterprise and the advantages of its location soon
evidenced themselves. in the rapid growth of the Sabbath school and
congregation. The chapel was often uncomfortably crowded, and the need
of better accommodation began to be more and more felt. To form the
nucleus of a new building fund, Messrs. Van Horn and McKeen fenced in
the square of ground lying between Washington Street and
Berkley and
Third and Fourth, and converted the enclosure into a. skating park. From
this novel expedient eighteen hundred dollars were realized, with which,
as a basis, Mr. Baker, in 1864, agitated the erection of a new church. A
plan was accordingly procured from Stephen D.
Button, architect, and in
April, 1866, it was resolved to begin the work. Isaac Van Horn and
Thomas McKeen were appointed a building committee, with the pastor as an
advisory member. The sudden and lamented death, of Mr. Van Horn before
the completion of the building necessitated the addition of his son, F.
C. Van Horn, and S. L. Stimson to the committee. The building was roofed
in during the summer of 1865, and upon the first Sabbath of September,
1866, was solemnly set apart to the service of Almighty God. In the
dedication service the First Church united, its former pastor, Dr.
Stewart, and W.C. Cattell, D.D., president of Lafayette College, taking
a prominent part. The cost of the building was about nineteen thousand
dollars.

The
history of the Second Church, has been one of constant, steady, healthy
growth.Starting with
but twenty persons, it reported to the last General Assembly a
membership of three hundred and fifty-five. Its Sabbath school is large
and flourishing. A thriving mission is sustained in the "neat
building recently erected at the corner of Broadway and Atlantic Avenue,
and action will soon be taken looking to the erection of a new and more
commodious building upon the site of the present chapel on Fourth
Street.

The
elders from the beginning have been Isaac Van Horn, Robert Barber,
Solomon L. Stimson, Judge George S. Woodhull, William Campbell,
Alexander Marcy, M.D., James Berry, Reuben F. Bancroft, John Callahan
and Benjamin O. Titus; its deacons have been George W. Carpenter, Jr.,
George E. Howes, Alfred M. Heston, David B. Riggs, Daniel Donehoo and
Francis T. Lloyd; and its Sabbath-school superintendents, Judge Woodhull,
William Getty, James Berry, S. Bryan Smith, William H. Bancroft and John
Callahan.

During
the twenty-six years of its existence the church has had but two
pastors. For more than twenty-two years it enjoyed the ministrations of
Mr. Baker. His long and faithful term of service had afforded
opportunities for quickening the spiritual life of the people, which
he had not failed to improve. Beloved both within and beyond the bounds
of his congregation, it was a matter of widespread regret that
retirement from the pulpit of his church should have been accompanied by
a change of residence. The relation which had subsisted between him and
his first charge for nearly a quarter of a century was, at his own
request, dissolved November 1, 1882.He now resides in Philadelphia, devoted to literary work, and to
such opportunities of preaching the Gospel, by tongue and pen, as
Providence may present.

The
present pastor, Mr. William Boyd, was installed May 2, 1883. His
ministry has been greatly blessed. Large accessions have been made to
the membership of the church, the property has been modernized and
improved and every department of religious work has been sustained with
zeal and vigor.

The
Reverend James C. Russell was pastor in the early 1890s, before going to
serve in upstate New York. The
Reverend Robert C. Jenkins
served as Pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in the late 1910s and
early 1920s. The church was sold to the Camden Board of Education for
$3,500 and reopened as the Central School Annex
on November 30, 1925.

Announcement was made yesterday in local Presbyterian churches of the death of Rev. James C. Russell, formerly pastor of the old Second Presbyterian Church,
Fourth and
Benson
Streets, died Wednesday at his home in Oneonta, New York. He was 76. Reverend Mr. Russell served here some 40 years ago and had been pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church at Oneonta since 1898. He was also a former pastor of the church at Horsehead,
New York.